The scope of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) applications to industry had been widen rapidly in recent years. This is because it can provide many advantages over traditional energy conversion systems including: tolerant to high temperature, high energy conversion efficiency, environmental friendly, and so on. As the SOFC is usually operating at extremely high temperatures, the contact resistance between the parts composing the SOFC can be a significant factor affecting its performance. Thus, for designing an efficient SOFC stack, it is required to perform a test for understanding the affection of load variation on a SOFC stack can have upon the contact resistances in the SOFC stack as well as its performance.
Conventionally, after the assembling of a SOFC stack is completed, it is being subjected to a load, like a carbon steel block or a stainless steel block, for stabilizing the same from tipping over and preparing the same to be move into a high-temperature furnace where it is heated to its designated operating temperature for sintering the glass cement in the cell stack; and then, after performing a performance test upon the heated SOFC stack, it is cooled down and then moved out of the furnace for changing the amount of load exerting upon the SOFC stack so as to be prepared for another performance test. Thus, by the data obtained from the aforesaid process, the affection of load variation upon the performance of the SOFC stack can be analyzed. However, it is noted that by the aforesaid process, not only the relationship between a load and a SOFC stack can not be inferred, but also there is no way of knowing how a glass cement used in the SOFC stack is to react to the load variation and there is no way to adjust the amount of load that is exerting on the SOFC stack in a real-time manner for responding to the resulting SOFC performance or the glass cement reaction. Not to mention that it is not only difficult and time consuming for obtaining any numerical measurement from the aforesaid process, but also it is difficult to adjust the load for the SOFC stack. Thus, such conventional process might not have any practical usage in real SOFC applications.
Therefore, it is in need of a load device for SOFC stack and a high-temperature furnace using the same that are capable of solving the aforesaid shortcomings.